Monday, November 02, 2009

Villans! Famous Fictional...

The brilliant Dan Zettwoch invited me to participate in a show about famous villians. We were asked to make a diptych, selecting one villain from 20th century film, and another from pre-20th century literature. (I loved this assignment so much that I subjected my students to it as well.)

This gave me the rare opportunity to draw one of my childhood obsessions, The Raiders of the Lost Ark- along with all it's face-melting spectacle. From Raiders, I chose Rene Belloq. The ark opening scene was part of my young interior life. Whenever I thought of the twin sided mystery of God's Glory- beauty and judgement- I thought of this scene. Naturally, I chose the Headless Horseman as Rene's counterpart. (Few seem to remember Rene Belloq's demise quite like the other two because in order to secure a PG rating, Spielberg had to cover the Belloq's exploding head with translucent flames.) Part of the fun of this show was that I couldn't count of Photoshop to clean up all my errors, I really had to make the physical drawing count! So I used a bunch of media, colored pencils, block printing ink and brayers, watercolor and pen & ink.

these are killer. the horsemen would have to be one of my all-time favorite characters, and i can relate to that Ark scene. that left a scar for several years after i saw that as a kid.i have to agree this is a great assignment, i can see why you loved it.

these are killer. the horsemen would have to be one of my all-time favorite characters, and i can relate to that Ark scene. that left a scar for several years after i saw that as a kid.i have to agree this is a great assignment, i can see why you loved it.